I love (hate) Daniel Levy, please don’t mention him anywhere else!

[samspurs92]

Seems like Romero agrees with the majority on here.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

Well yes the next tier in terms of infrastructure but we are a football club and one that historically used to win things. I want the next tier to be actually competitive again and not the butt of everyone’s jokes.

We stopped being a team that wins things a long time before Levy took over as chairman.

Last league title - 63 years ago (40 years before Levy).
Last FA Cup win - 33 years ago (10 years before Levy).
Last continental trophy - 40 years ago (10 years before Levy).

Levy clearly hasn't been the answer, but he also clearly wasn't the cause. For a long time before Levy / ENIC, we had been a mid-table team that spent more time in relegation scraps than competing for trophies.

 

[Hotspur33]

So he had a plan to increase revenue - fair enough.
Firing managers with little plan doesn’t prove a desire to win. I could just as easily say he has a desire to keep the heat off of him.
You keep focusing on the budgets but irrespective of the budgets what makes you think we will ever win under his leadership.? Is 24 years not enough ?

I’m not saying we will win under his leadership. I’m saying he has tried to win.

But I am saying his job is to run the business side of things and grow the club. And he has excelled at that.
For those claiming he only cares about money. Winning trophies would help the income very nicely, so I’d argue he would very much like to win.

I’d guess the best chance we have of
winning trophies consistently would require a buyout from someone with more money than everyone else.
Well, everyone would like that I’m sure.

Have we turned down offers to buy the club from people capable of buying success? (That is a genuine question, because I don’t know)

 

[Albertbarich]

I’m not saying we will win under his leadership. I’m saying he has tried to win.

But I am saying his job is to run the business side of things and grow the club. And he has excelled at that.
For those claiming he only cares about money. Winning trophies would help the income very nicely, so I’d argue he would very much like to win.

I’d guess the best chance we have of
winning trophies consistently would require a buyout from someone with more money than everyone else.
Well, everyone would like that I’m sure.

Have we turned down offers to buy the club from people capable of buying success? (That is a genuine question, because I don’t know)

I don’t disagree about off the field. He is arguably the best in the world.
But again you talk about budgets. He spent years promising this stadium would let us compete. Well we can now but we aren’t? He hires and fires random managers, appoints failing DOF’s and spend all our time in a constant state of projects and change without ever reaching the end game.
His primary goal should be to create a winning football team, he has failed to do that in 24 years. Even when he nearly got there with Poch he pissed him about and let it rot.
im genuinely flabbergasted that anyone still believes that winning is his priority. It’s clearly commercial and property which to be fair he excel at but after over two decades of this it’s clear there isn’t anything at the end of the rainbow. Spending to compete isn’t in their interests.

 

[Hotspur33]

I don’t disagree about off the field. He is arguably the best in the world.
But again you talk about budgets. He spent years promising this stadium would let us compete. Well we can now but we aren’t? He hires and fires random managers, appoints failing DOF’s and spend all our time in a constant state of projects and change without ever reaching the end game.
His primary goal should be to create a winning football team, he has failed to do that in 24 years. Even when he nearly got there with Poch he pissed him about and let it rot.
im genuinely flabbergasted that anyone still believes that winning is his priority. It’s clearly commercial and property which to be fair he excel at but after over two decades of this it’s clear there isn’t anything at the end of the rainbow. Spending to compete isn’t in their interests.

I think maybe we aren’t too far apart in our assessment. I think we both agree that currently we aren’t going to compete consistently to win trophies
I think we both agree he is great at the business side of things?

I’m happy to concede that whilst I understand why they don’t, there is definitely room for them to spend more money.

I guess that maybe you’re more optimistic about what a change of ownership would bring. Whilst I’m more pessimistic about what a change of ownership might bring?

 

[Rout-Ledge]

I’m not saying we will win under his leadership. I’m saying he has tried to win.

But I am saying his job is to run the business side of things and grow the club. And he has excelled at that.
For those claiming he only cares about money. Winning trophies would help the income very nicely, so I’d argue he would very much like to win.

I’d guess the best chance we have of
winning trophies consistently would require a buyout from someone with more money than everyone else.
Well, everyone would like that I’m sure.

Have we turned down offers to buy the club from people capable of buying success? (That is a genuine question, because I don’t know)

You talk like Levy’s hands are tied and available cash is the only thing preventing him from winning something for us. Here’s a list of the English clubs who’ve won major trophies since we last won one: Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Leicester, West Ham, Wigan Athletic,

For good measure, he’s a list of the sides who’ve reached the FA Cup final in Levy’s tenure: Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Leicester, Southampton, Millwall, West Ham, Portsmouth, Everton, Cardiff, Stoke City, Hull, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, and Watford.

Not Spurs though. Not once. It’s because we don’t have the money to compete, clearly,

 

[Albertbarich]

I think maybe we aren’t too far apart in our assessment. I think we both agree that currently we aren’t going to compete consistently to win trophies
I think we both agree he is great at the business side of things?

I’m happy to concede that whilst I understand why they don’t, there is definitely room for them to spend more money.

I guess that maybe you’re more optimistic about what a change of ownership would bring. Whilst I’m more pessimistic about what a change of ownership might bring?

We all just want some hope back.

we’ve all lost all hope. Even when clubs are rubbish the dream is still there. It might be a dream fa cup tie. Maybe promotion , maybe a cup run. At our level our dream is to compete. We have never consistently won stuff but it’s clear after all the promises we never will under this lot.

I meant what I said in my rant. They have stolen the club. A soulless dome full of tourists and logos everywhere of stuff that’s nothing to do with our club . It’s all been a big property deal and we’re all just sick of the purgatory.

he set the bar of competing for top four because if the revenue, but we have been there before and it makes no difference, we never kicked on.

He has done the worst thing an owner can do- stripped away all hope and all that’s left is apathy and bitterness.

we would likely get scumbag new owners but at this stage surely it’s worth a roll of the dice?

 

[only1waddle]

You talk like Levy’s hands are tied and available cash is the only thing preventing him from winning something for us. Here’s a list of the English clubs who’ve won major trophies since we last won one: Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Leicester, West Ham, Wigan Athletic,

For good measure, he’s a list of the sides who’ve reached the FA Cup final in Levy’s tenure: Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Leicester, Southampton, Millwall, West Ham, Portsmouth, Everton, Cardiff, Stoke City, Hull, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, and Watford.

Not Spurs though. Not once. It’s because we don’t have the money to compete, clearly,

Swansea and Birmingham both won league cups in that time.

 

[Rout-Ledge]

.
His primary goal should be to create a winning football team, he has failed to do that in 24 years. Even when he nearly got there with Poch he pissed him about and let it rot.

This is the smoking gun for me. The opportunity was there. We were genuinely competitive, our best team in decades. The stadium was just around the corner. The greatest home grown player in the club’s history landed in our laps. England’s most prolific ever goalscorer. Surely the perfect time to go the extra mile and consolidate our position? No, let’s sign PSG cast offs or even no players at all. £30m was too much for Jack Grealish so we sign nobody,

That period of time was absolutely indefensible and set us on a path to where we are today: completely adrift without a strategy. We were neck and neck with Liverpool. What did they do? Push the boat out and sign two world class players to finish off their team for ‘exorbitant fees’. They don’t look too exorbitant now, do they?

 

[only1waddle]

This is the smoking gun for me. The opportunity was there. We were genuinely competitive, our best team in decades. The stadium was just around the corner. The greatest home grown player in the club’s history landed in our laps. England’s most prolific ever goalscorer. Surely the perfect time to go the extra mile and consolidate our position? No, let’s sign PSG cast offs or even no players at all. £30m was too much for Jack Grealish so we sign nobody, That period of time was absolutely indefensible.

And the capability to push on was there, just not taken, that's when you know he's just a bullshit merchant.

 

[rossdapep]

Got to laugh.

We copied Brighton and Brentford's strategy and even beat them to players.

Yet they are both, along with Brentford, above us.

In fact Tottenham, United and West Ham have all got owners who are dinosaurs, incompetent or owners unwilling to go beyond and all 3 teams look miles behind Brighton/Brentford let alone Arsenal and Liverpool

 

[Trix]

Slot said no. You’re thinking of Ten Hag that Levy turned down.

Nope. We walked away from ETH.....Twice in the space of a couple of months because Levy thought he wasn't charismatic enough....twice. basically we met him didn't think he was right, fucked up a few more potential targets went back to ETH, then remembered why we didn't want him the first time, and walked away again.

Slot we liked but we baulked at the release fee that would have been required. We didn't follow up once we knew it would be expensive.

 

[spurs9]

Don't want to wind anyone up further (lies) but imagine the 16/17 but we paid the wages and got Saido Mane instead of Sissoko, could that have made a 7 point difference that would have won us the league?

 

[only1waddle]

Don't want to wind anyone up further (lies) but imagine the 16/17 but we paid the wages and got Saido Mane instead of Sissoko, could that have made a 7 point difference that would have won us the league?

That was my sliding doors moment in the thread of said name.

 

[jolsnogross]

Levy has been an active hindrance to sporting ambition at Spurs since he arrived. He's a small man and his strategic abilities match that stature. At this point, I try not to get too caught up in this discussion because I just view him as a hurdle to be overcome - a baked-in ball and chain for any manger that comes in. And we still get to expect that managers can get a tune out of the team, since Jol, Redknapp, and Poch were able to.

That's the challenge for Ange. He shouldn't be so naïve about having time with really young players. Get a couple of grown ups in who have shown resolve and character previously. It still too early to say Ange has failed when I think he can stabilize and turn this season around and kick on a bit from there.

 

[isaac94]

That was my sliding doors moment in the thread of said name.

One of many sliding doors moments in Levy's tenure, Redknapp wanted Tevez and Cahill, got Nelson and Saha, Mourinho wanted Fernandes and Dias, got Gedson and Rodon

 

[Neon_Knight_]

This is the smoking gun for me. The opportunity was there. We were genuinely competitive, our best team in decades. The stadium was just around the corner. The greatest home grown player in the club’s history landed in our laps. England’s most prolific ever goalscorer. Surely the perfect time to go the extra mile and consolidate our position? No, let’s sign PSG cast offs or even no players at all. £30m was too much for Jack Grealish so we sign nobody,

That period of time was absolutely indefensible and set us on a path to where we are today: completely adrift without a strategy. We were neck and neck with Liverpool. What did they do? Push the boat out and sign two world class players to finish off their team for ‘exorbitant fees’. They don’t look too exorbitant now, do they?

Our fans (and the media) seem to be great at looking back at Liverpool's transfer dealings with rose-tinted glasses.

VVD & Salah proved to be very good signings indeed, but they cost less than the star player they had just sold (Coutinho). In order to make comparable signings, financed in a comparable way to Liverpool's, we would have needed to sell one of Kane / Dele.

In the years leading up to that window, our team (and results) had steadily improved, while the opposite was true of Liverpool. We had been finished ahead of them in 7 of the previous 8 seasons, and then finished ahead of them again the season after they signed VVD & Salah.
After finishing 2nd in 2013/14 (their best ever PL finish at the time, and the only time they finished above us between 2009-2018), they sold their star player and went back down hill.
Sold Suarez to Barca and attempted to replace him with an out of form Ballotelli plus a very average Ricky Lambert. A year later, they loaned out Balotelli (no-one would buy him), and brought in Benteke for £45m...who also flopped and was sold on at a significant loss. Firminho was a good signing, but was a replacement for Sterling (sold to a rival club for big money), and followed a string of expensive flops in attacking positions. Before that (but still within the almost decade period where we were consistently better than them), they signed dozens and dozens of flops (didn't they sign about 10 bang average / awful fullbacks in the space of a few years at one point? Haha!).
During the same period, we signed some very good players and overall did much better business - evidenced by our superior PL finishes. Son, Alderweireld, Dele, Eriksen, Lamela, Dembele, Vertonghen, Lloris, VdV, Sandro, Walker, Rose, Bale, Lennon, Modric etc. Liverpool would have been very jealous of us at the time - including jealous of our owner (and apparently our Sporting Director, Comoli).

Both clubs have had ups and downs in their histories, with Liverpool for most of time being by far the bigger, richer, more successful club. Ultimately though, the two singings you're referencing were a bit of a fluke, because Liverpool could only afford them after Barca bizarrely broke their transfer record to sign a player who wasn't even in the top 10 in the world for his position. Had Barca not been so stupid, Liverpool wouldn't have signed either player.

 

[Bluto Blutarsky]

VVD & Salah proved to be very good signings indeed, but they cost less than the star player they had just sold (Coutinho). In order to make comparable signings, financed in a comparable way to Liverpool's, we would have needed to sell one of Kane / Dele.

Salah came in the summer before Coutinho was sold.

Salah in summer of 2017

Coutinho out in January of 2018

We did sell Kane - and should have sold Dele - where is our Salah or VVD?

 

[barry]

Are none of you worried about doing a Leeds if Levy sold. Think of the children

 

[Booney]

I’ve been a Levy watcher for long enough to know that when the natives get restless he tends to deflect attention by either sacking the manager or investing in a quick splurge on players.

Sacking Ange looks too high-risk to me for all sorts of reasons. May be wishful thinking but I think we’ll invest in 2 or 3 more established players in Jan.